Table of Contents
- What You’ll Learn
- Why Are Google Seller Ratings so Important for a Small Business?
- Does Having Seller Ratings Increase Click-Through Rates?
- Does Having Seller Ratings Increase Conversion Rates?
- Are There Other Factors Involved That Affect CTR and CVR?
- Are the Number of Seller Ratings That Are Displayed Important?
- Can Shopper Approved Help Your Business Get Seller Ratings?
- How Does Shopper Approved Display and Distribute Seller Ratings?
- Summary
- How Shopper Approved Can Help with Traffic and Conversion
- Further Reading
Struggling to find a seller ratings solution that can be implemented quickly and provide the positive impacts you are looking for, like increased visibility online conversions?
If so, we're here to help.
In this article, we'll talk about
- The factors that are involved in seller ratings.
- The questions you should be asking when seeking the right review site vendor for your online business.
- How Google seller ratings work.
- How Shopper Approved has helped thousands of businesses just like yours get seller ratings and reviews.
By the time you're done reading this, not only will you have a clear sense for how seller ratings work, but you'll finally be on the path of getting seller ratings for your online business.
Now, let's dive in.
Why Are Google Seller Ratings Important for Online Sales?
Seller ratings are an important form of social proof because they provide potential buyers with information about the seller's past performance. This information can be used to gauge the reliability and trustworthiness of the seller, and can help buyers make informed purchasing decisions. Additionally, seller ratings can also provide insight into the quality of the products or services offered by the seller.
Seller ratings make you more visible on the search engine results page (SERP). Whether in a Google ad or organic search results, the shopper’s eye and attention is drawn to the star ratings, establishing your credibility with the first impression the prospect receives upon searching.
Having star ratings on the results page has been proven to increase traffic to the seller’s website by 35%.
Does Having Seller Ratings Increase Click-Through Rates?
Not only do star ratings help your listings to stand out, but according to Google, they also increase average click-through rates (CTR) by 17%. This increase in click-through traffic has a positive net effect across several other key metrics, including lowering your average cost-per-click (CPC) and lowering your customer acquisition costs (CAC).
Does Having Seller Ratings Increase Conversion Rates?
Seller ratings can have a positive impact on conversion rates. Star ratings provide easily-grasped social proof to potential buyers, increasing trust in the seller and the products they offer. This means that by the time shoppers have clicked through to your site, they are pre-converted, with any doubts about buying from you already answered.
When it comes to increasing your click-through rate and conversion rate, seller ratings are a powerful tool that can create a distinct positive impact on both. In fact the search marketing experts at Metric Theory found that, “For text ads where a Seller Rating is displayed, we see a 24% higher click-through rate (CTR) and a 26% higher conversion rate.”
Are There Other Factors Involved That Affect CTR and CVR?
There are other factors beyond simply having ratings that can affect click-throughs and conversions. This can include the overall business rating level, product reviews, and the overall reputation of the seller. To read more about how to manage these other factors, check out these other articles from Shopper Approved:
Are the Number of Seller Ratings That Are Displayed Important?
The more seller ratings you have, the more established and trustworthy your website appears to the shopper to be. In addition, Google itself has criteria that to display ratings, you must have at least one hundred verified reviews collected within the last twelve months, from the country of the searcher. You also need a 3.5 average star rating.
In fact, the number of reviews is so important that it should be one of the most important factors in determining which review platform you use.
Shopper Approved is very unique in the review industry, because we highly specialize in two areas:
We do this by collecting up to ten times more ratings and reviews than any other review platform online. We then syndicate those reviews to more places than any other review platform, including Google, Yahoo, and Bing.
Okay, now that we’ve established that having a seller rating helps, here’s how Shopper Approved can help get your business seller ratings quickly and easily.
Can Shopper Approved Help Your Business Get Seller Ratings?
Yes. Shopper Approved uses a two-step process to collect ratings from your customers after they buy. This includes asking customers for a rating at the time of purchase and after delivery. It has been proven to collect ratings from up to one third of all customers after they buy– which is up to ten times more than other review platforms.
How Does Shopper Approved Display and Distribute Seller Ratings?
Once you start collecting ratings and reviews from your buyers, Shopper Approved will give you a trust seal to display in the spots of your choosing on your website. When customers and prospects click on this certificate, they will be sent to your Shopper Approved certificate page, where all of your reviews can be seen.
But the display of your ratings is not contained to your Shopper Approved page. We help you win at SEO, enhance your online reputation, and increase brand recognition by syndicating your reviews out to other sites.
This includes Google, which means that your certificate showing your seller rating will appear alongside your products in relevant search results.
Not only is your Shopper Approved certificate page search engine optimized, which helps your rating show up in Google organic search results, but it also includes a special code that allows your star ratings to display.
In addition to your seller ratings displayed in Google, Shopper Approved also actively displays and promotes your seller ratings as part of your Shopper Approved certificate.
Above is an example of a Shopper Approved Certificate
In addition to seller ratings, your Shopper Approved Certificate, like the one shown above, includes other valuable metrics that customers base their buying decisions on, like product satisfaction, delivery time, and price satisfaction.
You can also display results for questions like,
- Would you recommend this company to a friend?
- Would you buy again from this company?
- Were you satisfied with your customer support experience?
Customers are invited to leave detailed written or video reviews, if they would like, and both of those types of reviews can be captured directly via Shopper Approved’s software. In this way, product and video reviews can be displayed right alongside your seller ratings.
The number of years you have been collecting reviews, your total number of reviews (and total number of 5-star reviews), and your corporate biography round out the information future customers can see on your certificate.
Interested in testing out Shopper Approved’s system and starting to collect seller ratings for your business? Simply by creating a trial account, you’ll get a shopper approved certificate, this allows you to get star ratings right away.
Ready to get started? Click here to start your free 45-day trial and get seller ratings running for your business.
Summary
Seller ratings and the social proof they provide are important because of the overwhelming impact they can have on the success of your company. By displaying seller ratings on Google, your own website, and other strategic locations online, you create instant social proof and establish your online reputation as a trusted brand, which increases your visibility, traffic, and sales.
When shopping online, people use seller ratings that they view on the search results page as a visual shorthand to decide whether to trust an online seller. When you have a high number of ratings and a high star ratings score, people are more inclined to click through to your website to continue shopping your products. They are also pre-converted and thus more likely to convert their visit into a sale.
Finally, there are many review companies that collect seller ratings for online businesses, but only a few are official Google Approved Review Partners that are authorized to collect and syndicate seller ratings directly to Google. If you don’t collect reviews from a Google Review Partner, then your ratings won’t display in Google, which severely limits reach, visibility, and impact.
How Shopper Approved Can Also Help with Product Reviews, Video Reviews, Social Evidence, and Other Means of Improving Traffic and Conversion
At Shopper Approved, we know that seller ratings are just one part of leveraging content created by your customers to help your business grow by increasing traffic and conversion on your website.
That’s why ratings are only one brick in a stack of products we call the traffic and conversion suite. With this powerful, all-in-one solution, we can also help you collect, display, and benefit from video reviews, social evidence from your most loyal customers, Q&A for your website that generates SEO gold, website security to ensure shoppers their purchase is safe, and more.
Click through to learn more about the pieces of Shopper Approved’s Traffic & Conversion Suite.
Related Articles to Seller Ratings
Drive More Visibility, Traffic, and Sales
Accessibility